


Burn all bridges

by Rogercat



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Aegon and Rhaenys Targaryen Live, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dorne, Elia Martell Deserves Better, Elia Martell Lives, Faked Deaths, Gen, Growing Up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-21
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:42:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26029642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rogercat/pseuds/Rogercat
Summary: When Elia learns that Rhaegar have run off with Lyanna Stark, she and Rhaella chose to take matters in their own hands. Let the Seven Kingdoms see what happens when its royal family suddenly sinks down to just a mad father and foolish son left alive
Relationships: Aegon VI Targaryen & Rhaenys Targaryen (Daughter of Elia), Doran Martell/Mellario of Norvos, Elia Martell & Aegon VI Targaryen, Elia Martell & Rhaella Targaryen, Oberyn Martell/Ellaria Sand, Rhaella Targaryen & Viserys Targaryen
Comments: 89
Kudos: 162
Collections: Southern Renaissance (Dorne Renaissance)





	1. Faking our deaths

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lostchildofthenewworld](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lostchildofthenewworld/gifts).



> Birthday gift for Lostchildoftheworld

Dragonstone, six months in the year 282 after the Conquest: 

The daughter of House Stark. The same girl who he had crowned as Queen of Love and Beauty in front of all the high lords of Westeros, despite being married and the girl promised in marriage to Robert Baratheon, his own second-cousin. 

Elia wanted to scream, but all she felt was numbness. Rhaegar had shown the side of himself he had only hinted before. 

That it did not matter if it was just his legal wife who gave him the three children he wanted, but that a mistress worked just as well in his eyes. 

“Ashara.” 

The oldest daughter of House Dayne was not the only one among her Dornish ladies-in-waiting who jerked when they heard her tone. After all, they would know Elia better than the others here at the court of Dragonstone, the seat of the heir to the Iron Throne. 

“ **_Pack my personal belongings, and those of my children, at once. I am not going to let the Seven Kingdoms claim that a Dornish princess is worth less for a royal husband than a northern wolf-girl._ **” 

With a remarkable force for a woman who had needed several months of bedrest to recover from the difficult birth of her son, the prince she had nearly died to give Rhaegar, Elia then pulled off her wedding ring and threw it into the fireplace next to her, where a fire was burning to keep the cold sea winds out of the castle. 

“I am erasing myself from the narrative of House Targaryen. Let future historians wonder how Elia Martell reacted when the Silver Prince broke her heart. And what it ended up costing him. By this action, he has forfeited all rights to our children, the daughter and son that I bore him.”

It was time to use that secret gift Rhaella had sent her when Rhaenys was born, something unspoken of but what Elia had understood the hidden meaning with. Rhaegar had to be forced out of his daydreams into the bitter reality of being a Crown prince of a realm with such different cultures since they once had been separate kingdoms. 

  
  


An hour before dawn, the nursery in Dragonstone suddenly exploded, the green flames and force revealing the origins to be greenfire. With the castle staff and people from the belonging villages tried in fanatic panic to pull out the fire in a desperate attempt to save the lives of crown princess, the royal children and her Dornish ladies-in-waiting who had been in the nursery overnight, no one noticed the two rowboats leave the island. 

“Here is an advance payment for choosing to help us return to Dorne, master Davos,” Elia said while giving the smuggler a coin bag filled with smaller jewelry. 

“If I was enough high-born, I would have smacked some common sense into the head of that idiotic prince you had to call husband, my princess.”

Davos had almost been caught the day before, but when the Princess herself came down to his ship and asked how much it would cost for smuggling a large group of people to Dorne, and being told the reason why, he had agreed. 

“By the way, Davos...is there a possibility of us making a quick stop at the capital, there is an imprisoned lady and her child that I would like to bring along to freedom.”

~X~X~X~X~X~X

A week later, everything pointed towards Queen Rhaella and her youngest son Viserys being killed in a similar explosion inside Maegor's Holdfast together with Lewyn Martell, who had been on guard when it happened. 

In seven days, House Targayren had lost all members but the current King and his oldest son, the Crown prince. And now when Rhaegar did not return at once despite the horrible tragedy of losing his wife, two children, mother and sole surviving sibling, whispers started to be spread among both the noble families and smallfolk that Rhaegar might actually have ordered his family to be killed in order to force his father Aerys into accepting his son marrying a new wife, the same northern maiden that he had made the Queen of Love and Beauty only a few months before his son and heir was born from Elia Martell… 


	2. The nephew of Aegon V

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the House targaryen down to only Aerys and Rhaegar, a new player enters the game of thrones

As Elia had managed to send a raven with a quick letter to her brothers to let them know of what she planned, the ship with its secret cargo could arrive safely at the Tor, the seat of her paternal relatives. 

“Cousin Elia! That foolish husband of yours truly is no Daeron II as your late mother Aria hoped, he is more of an Aegon IV reborn with a bit of Aerys I mixed in!!” her cousin Myria called from the other end of the pier as Elia watched Lewyn carrying Rhaella in his arms and Visenys keeping himself close out of worry, her mother-in-law clearly feeling not well. Whatever it was as a result of spending twelve years locked up indoors, or something related to the shock of her oldest son running off with the Stark daughter, they did not know right now but there was no doubt that Rhaella's health was not good.

“Uncle, bring the Rhoynar healers here, please!”

Rhaella was the one who had enabled Elia to fake her death and that of her children by the wildfire explosion inside the nursery of Dragonstone, it would be a poor start of repaying that debt by not helping her escape her own horrible life in turn. 

  
  


Two days later in Sunspear, Doran got a message pigeon with a letter from Dagos Manwoody, the Lord of Kingsgrave: 

_My guards in the Red Mountains found a suspicious group of travelers. Turned out to be the unfaithful Silver Prince, the missing She-wolf and the two Kingsguard members Arthur Dayne and Oswell Whent who vanished with the Prince originally. They are locked up in various places by the accusation of illegally passing through the Prince's Pass as well kidnapping Miss Stark from the planned wedding to Lord Robert Baratheon. The Prince has been told that he is viewed as a kinslayer of his own family, and that we are not letting either him or the Stark girl escape being used as hostages._

Doran knew that this was good news, Rhaegar as a hostage against the Iron Throne as Aerys did not have any other “living” children now and House Stark would want their runaway daughter back since she was an intended wife to House Baratheon. His sister, her children and the others were on the way to the Water Gardens, the best place for hiding the two “dead royal mothers” and their three children. It would also be a good place for Rhaella to recover strength and health. 

“And I can tell Lord Stark honestly that we sadly can not guarantee that his daughter is still a maiden after spending such a long time with the Prince. Removing a possible royal bastard from her womb by a abortion tea, yes, we can do that, but repairing her tainted reputation? Unlikely.” 

Well, Doran did not care what House Stark and the Baratheon would do with Lyanna Stark after this scandal. For now, he wanted to ensure that Elia and Rhaella were guarded carefully in the Water Gardens. If the children was seen, well, Oberyn had already offered to claim them as his bastards if there was any questions raised, Rhaenys would easy blend in among the Sand Snakes, while Viserys and Aegon could be passed off as the sons of two ladies from Lys or something such if someone commented on that they had a very Targaryen look. It was not like the Blood of Old Valyria was found only in the descendants of Aegon I and his sister-wives, after all. 

~X~X~X~X~X~X

When nearly a month had passed since the quickly-named “Tragedy of Dragonstone” had happened, a fleet of ships from Essos could be seen in the distance for those who sailed in Shipbreaker Bay with fishing boats and other smaller vessels.

And the Dowager Lady of Storm's End, Rhaelle Baratheon nee Targaryen, got a letter personally delivered from one of those fishermen, who had gotten his boat very close to one of those ships and requested to give her that letter in exchange for getting his daily catch of fresh fishes brought by the crew. 

“This is not a common way to send letters, since most Lords here in the Stormlands use either ravens or messenger riders. Who could the sender be?”

Only when she saw the sigil on the letter, did she realize who it could be, and what the content of the letter could be about. And it was confirmed by a short note written in a feminine hand, signed with her niece's name, that had been sent along: 

_Please come and claim your Iron Throne, Grandson of Maekar I, for my daughter-in-law and myself refuse to let my Viserys, little Rhaenys and Aegon be shamed by the actions of Rhaegar and whatever Aerys will do as a reaction to him running off with the daughter of House Stark. Rhaella_

“Oh….oh, oh! Rhaella must have sent him a letter before the explosion that offically made Aerys without a sister-wife and only his idiotic firstborn left as his sole relative! **_FINALLY!!_ ** Of course **_he_ ** has been waiting for a golden opportunity like this for all those years!!” 

Rhaelle now saw what Rhaella had planned the moment she heard about Elia and her children losing their lives in the explosion; her cousin, the 50-year-old Maegor Targaryen, the son of Aerion who had spent most of his life in Essos yet keeping in contact with her for news from Westeros, was basically offered the Kingship and the Seven Kingdoms as her niece did not trust her own oldest son to be a worthy king, proved by that he did not even show up seven days later when Rhaella and Viserys also was lost to death. Of course, House Baratheon could make a claim to the Iron Throne though her as a daughter of Aegon V, but at the same time, Rhaelle was not sure if Robert promised to enjoy the burdens of kingship and only saw the glory of the position. 

“At least we can offer Maegor the strength of the Stormlands if he needs more of a army, and maybe we can blackmail House Stark into helping out, their missing daughter is held in Dorne after all, and I can see a very legal reason to why they would want to remove Aerys and Rhaegar from the Iron Throne after this horrible loss of Elia and her sweet children.” 

The Stormlands, the North and Dorne united with the fleet of warships from Essos that Maegor brought with him to claim the crown. But they had to add in more strength to the rebellion. Rhaelle tried to recall how it was with the seven sons and five daughters that her cousin had gotten from two marriages, she knew that he had married his first wife young not long after becoming a man at 16 in Essos and already was a grandfather now. 

“Maegor said in one letter from two years ago that his youngest son are only three years older than the Lannister twins...hm, offering to free young Jaime from his vows to the Kingsguard and still getting Cersei married to a prince, even if she might not be a queen? Being a princess by marriage is not a bad deal either.”

Yes, she did not doubt that he would try and make marriage alliances with the noble houses of Westeros to strengthen his claim to the crown. After all, her own three oldest siblings were a perfect example of what could happen when you refused such marriages and Daeron had only gotten off mildly by admitting to Olenna that he was a sword-swallower to the point of not being drawn to women at all. Sure, the eventual Lady Tyrell had still been upset over being rejected by the Targaryen prince, but also openly declaring him “ **_more_ ** _of a man than his brothers_ ” for at least being honest about why he could not marry her and even allowing Olenna to make it seem like she was the one ending the betrothal. 

“Robert? Robert, Stannis! Get to my solar at once, I need to talk with you both about that fleet that has been spotted these days!”

She had to tell her two oldest grandsons about the new course of events and have them bring in the military strength of the Stormlands. 

~X~X~X~X~X~X

With the promise of getting his son back from the Kingsguard and his daughter wed to a prince with their branch of the new royal family having a seat in the restored Castamere, Tywin Lannister chose to join the rebellion. With the fleet from Essos, troops from Dorne, the Westerlands, the Stormlands and the North, the rest of the Seven Kingdoms had to choose sides. House Tyrell chose to join King Aerys and the Crownlands, but the Riverlands under House Tully found themselves in a hard situation, as Catelyn Tully had just been married to Brandon Stark before Lyanna Stark ran away and her younger siblings Lysa and Edmure was still not promised in marriage to someone. Hoster Tully tried to hastily wed his younger daughter to the aging Jon Arryn in the hope of keeping the Riverlands neutral, but found himself in the same situation as Rickard Stark when Lysa chose to run away in the middle of night after hearing that her father wanted her to marry someone older than himself. 

And to everyone's surprise, she showed up at Storm End of all places. But not as a hostage, for with the blessing of Maegor Targaryen when she came to plead for help, Lysa Tully married Stannis Baratheon in a hasty wedding ceremony before the troops left the Stormlands. 

“Might as well make Hoster Tully join the Rebellion by force, with this marriage. And Jon Arryn is too old to sire healthy children, no matter how young and fertile a new bride of his would be. Better to give House Baratheon a new Lady to its current heir since we still have not agreed on what to do with Lyanna Stark,” was all Maegor said about it all before leading the rebellion to its first battle. 

  
  
  


The Reach suffered horrible losses in battle as the rebel armies was bigger in size and slowly coming closer to the capital. King's Landing fell half a year of siege, because with the amount of smallfolk living in the city after taking refuge there when the rebellion started and rumours about the royal court feasting while the commoners starved, it was inevitable that a riot would break out from the lack of food.

From there, it was only a matter of time before the city gates were opened with Maegor promising to show mercy to those who surrounded and share food with the common people. The following night, the rebels were able to use the hidden tunnels of the Red Keep to take the whole royal court by surprise. 

“You have no power anymore, Aerys. Your line is spent, and your heir is a prisoner in Dorne, you have no one who can take over after yourself,” the nephew of Aegon V commanded as his men quickly dealt with the Kingsguard members in the throne chamber and castle guards around in the Red Keep, taking great care to not injury Jaime Lannister more than necessary knock the sword out of his hands and catch him since their Lord had promised Tywin that his heir would be unharmed. 

“Traitor...traitor…” 

The current Targaryen King had already been gaunt from eating very little before, but now he looked like a living corpse. It was as if something was eating up him from the inside, perhaps guilt over Rhaella and how he had treated her before she died, as well anger over how his own son had acted. 

“Daeron. Aemon. Valerion. Get him into the carriage we prepared earlier.” 

The two oldest sons of Maegor obeyed the command of their father, grabbing hold of Aerys and tossing him inside a carriage with padded walls and only one door. Aerys was too weak to make any resistance as he was set in chains, now facing imprisonment for the rest of his life and only a fool would want him back on the Iron Throne now. 

“Long live the King! Long live Maegor II!” 

A new era for House Targaryen and Westeros had started. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tada, no one expected Aerion's son Maegor to show up, right? Well, I checked the timeline, and as he would have been 50 years old in 282, nothing stopped me from the idea of that he have lived in Essos and watched the descendants of his uncle Aegon V as they keep messing up with Westeros


	3. Broken dreams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lives are changed forever with Maegor II on the throne

Once he held the Iron Throne, Maegor II did not waste time dealing with those who protested his claim to the Kingship. During his first three months as King, the south of Westeros found itself with a big sink in the number of noble families. 

“The Wall. Beheading for treason. Stripped of their noble title and wealth. Exile to Essos for the rest of his natural life. Wife and daughters to the Silent Sisters, sons to the Faith.”

Those were the punishments many royalists tied to Aerys and Rhaegar faced, if not already dead in the battles during the rebellion. Jon Connington found himself among the former nobles who were beheaded, because he kept insisting that Rhaegar was the true King of Westeros and that Elia Martell had been unworthy of the Silver Prince because she was Dornish.

“By not keeping his tongue in control about that a queen consort of Westeros must be from the south yet not from Dorne or the North, he also hinted to that my Elinor is unworthy of being my queen consort for being from Norvos,” was all Maegor said when he saw the head of Connington on top of the city walls. 

And among those sent to the Wall to serve in the Night Watch, were all the current members of the Kingsguard, for failing to protect Rhaella from the horrible treatment she had suffered under Aerys and not stopping Aerys from abusing her, or preventing Rhaegar from doing the mess that had started all this. Maegor intended to change the Kingsguard, so the new version of those royal bodyguards would not repeat the mistakes of the past. From now on, no queen consort or other woman married into the royal family would fear abuse or motherhood at a too young age, and if there was enough members of the royal family, a King would be replaced by a more suitable replacement if he was abusing his royal power or were mentally unstable in some form that could become dangerous in the future. 

~X~X~X~X~X~X

A few weeks after New Year in 283 A.C, Dorne:

Now living with their children in the Water Gardens, Elia and Rhaella could watch the drama of the capital from a safe distance. Today, Mellario was with them since Doran and Oberyn had traveled to witness the coronation of Maegor. 

“Oh, House Martell will get the the equivalent of Rhaegar's personal wealth for the next 50 years “as life can not be paid in money but to spend those in memory of those lost” and what was meant to be your own wellsprings of wealth as part of the royal family, according to what the King writes here,” the Princess Consort commented when she read out aloud from a official letter to Dorne. 

“Good. Without any money my foolish firstborn is unlikely to be able to pay for a company of sellswords to help him reclaim his lost crown, if he ever manages to escape, that is.”

Rhaella had transformed dramatically in little less than a year. The physical scars from her last years of marriage would never fade, and she hated to stay in rooms with doors that could be locked from the outside, but she was far more healthy now after a long-time treatment by the Rhoynish healers and not having to worry about ever getting pregnant again. Viserys had been very shy in the beginning, due to being isolated from other children and only having a very limited servant staff during his first years, but now he was happy playing around with the Martell children and their cousins. 

“Quentyn, Sarella, Rhaenys! Please keep Aegon away from the edge of that pool!” Elia called to the three cousins who had been born only a few months apart. 

“Where is my happy brood of grandchildren?” a new voice called, and the children looked up at seeing Ihsan, the former Prince Consort of Dorne, arrive after being away in Sunspear for some days.

“Abuelo!”

Knowing that her father would get the full attention of the children, Elia looked over a new letter that had arrived this very morning. 

“Rhaegar and Lyanna Stark are going to have a trial in three days when they have arrived at the capital from where they have been kept as prisoners by House Dayne.”

She would have loved to personally watch the fools face the consequences of their actions, but since she was officially dead, she could not show herself outside Dorne. But her brothers had promised to tell the full details when they came back home.

~X~X~X~X~X~X

Indeed, Maegor did not show any mercy towards Rhaegar or Lyanna when he listened to their noticeable changeful attempts to explain why they had eloped together, Rhaegar about needing a third child that Elia could not give him and Lyanna claiming that Robert would not be faithful to her. The healers from House Manwoody gave a testimony about giving Lyanna abortion tea just in case she had really slept with the former Crown prince and might be carrying a Blackfyre in her vomb at the arrival to Kingsgrave, a logic that Maegor did agree on given what legacy Daemon Blackfyre had caused in the long run with his descendants. 

“Rhaegar. Wake up from those damned daydreams about ancient prophecies and see what you have brought down to your dynasty! Your wife from House Martell is dead in an explosion of wildfire, together with the children she gave you! Your mother and brother faced the same fate, all while you kept babbling some nonsense about needing a third head of the dragon after that Princess Elia almost died to you a son! The world does not look kindly upon  **_kinslayers,_ ** and you shall go down in history as one of the Targaryens struck by mental derangement, willing to sacrifice your own wife and children without thinking of how that would affect those around! You are going to the Wall, and live out the rest of your miserable life there in the frozen wilderness!”

To further hammer in his judgement so Rhaegar could not try to claim the crown despite the wast distance between the Wall and King's Landing, Maegor actually ordered that the marriage between Aerys and Rhaella was to be declared illegitimate, based on that they had been siblings born from the same set of parents and below the age of majority at the marriage, meaning that Rhaegar now was no longer a prince, just a royal bastard born from incest. 

“Bring Rhaegar  **_Waters_ ** out of my sight at once!” 

He also signed a small note on a piece of parchment, giving it to his wife without a word. Taking a quick look at what he had written, Elinor rose to give the unspoken order further on behalf of her husband. 

  
  


When it came to Lyanna to be judged, she faced no less mercy for being female, or a daughter of a Lord Paramount. 

“All that fuss about Robert Baratheon siring a natural daughter before you even were betrothed, and then running away with a married father of two? That, Miss Stark, only shows that you failed to realize that little Mya Stone is proof that you would not have to worry about being married to a infertile husband, and that you view your own feelings and wishes as more important than your social duty as a noble daughter.” 

Not wanting to waste time on the irresponsible young girl in front of him, Maegor sentenced Lyanna to life imprisonment as a prisoner in a remote motherhouse on a small island in the Stormlands, never to be allowed back to her northern homeland. 

“Lord Stark,” Maegor addressed Rickard Stark who twiched at the stern voice, “if  **_anyone_ ** in your family tries to free Lyanna Stark from that motherhouse, that person shall be stripped of their status and sent to the Wall.” 

The risk of losing his inheritance and position as the future Lord Stark, seemed to be the nail in the coffin for Brandon Stark's desire to save his sister. Eddard and Benjen also looked uncomfortable at realizing what this could mean for them, and so the sole Stark daughter found no rescue from her father or brothers.

“Father? Please, no...father!  **_Father! Brandon! Eddard! Benjen!_ ** Please, do not let them lock me up again! Please!” Lyanna pleaded, crying for their help when she was dragged out from the throne room, Rickard holding a hand on the shoulder of Brandon to keep him from doing anything stupid and looking away from the family member that had shamed them so publicy. 

  
  


But the punishment of Lyanna did not end with a life in a motherhouse. Her intended dowry was stripped from her family and given to House Baratheon as compensation, along with Maegor ordering a betrothal between the oldest Stark daughter in the next generation to the oldest son of either Robert or Stannis. And Eddard Stark had to join the new Kingsguard, so the crown had a hostage to ensure that House Stark would not try anything suspicious. 

~X~X~X~X~X~X

For Robert, the loss of Lyanna was not the worst in this situation. He  **_had_ ** planned to do his best to remain faithful after their wedding, and her lack of trust in that honest promise was what hurt so deeply. 

“If I had acted like a brat about my future husband having a love child before the marriage, Father would have ensured that I could not sit for a week with his own hand,” princess Leia, the youngest daughter of the new Targaryen King, commented as she sat down without warning beside the young Lord Baratheon. She knew that, as Maegor had only needed to put her over his knee once in her life and all her older siblings had confirmed to suffering the same if they had done something really stupid. 

“Good to hear that he has learned from what happened with the children of Aegon V, my grandmother Rhaelle never forgave her three oldest siblíngs for breaking their betrothals in the way they did. She always says that had Lady Olenna been a male instead, great-uncle Daeron would have formed a trio of feared warriors with both Olenna and Jeremy Norridge.”

Robert accepted the offered bottle of fine wine she held out, and watched Leia as she walked around in the gardens around, commenting on how her parents planned to expand the capital past its current city walls because the living conditions were really horrible for the poor and also building a  _ proper sewer system  _ that was long overdue. 

“I am not going to protest Father marrying me off to a noble family here in Westeros to put a final end to the Targaryen incest marriages, and it is not going to be old Jon Arryn as far as I know, he is past the age for siring healthy children with his nephew already married.” 

Her change in social status had not affected her that much yet, after all both the wives of Maegor had been from wealthy noble families in either Pentos or Norvos, and personally the youngest daughter of Maegor could not see why Lyanna Stark had chosen Rhaegar over Robert since the Targaryen prince had been married with two legal children already, honestly!

“I will have to look around for a wife too, but I am not liking the idea of someone being joked about as a replacement for Lyanna Stark.” 

Leia suddenly smiled, and without her taking after her paternal family like two of her four older sisters, it became a different effect on her beauty. She was not plain, just normal-looking in a manner that was pleasant on the eye. 

“Say, Lord Robert...what would lady Rhaelle say about a fellow Targaryen Princess, born from a non-Targaryen mother, joining her and lady Lysa Tully as a lady married into House Baratheon?”

She liked Robert, not just for looking like the dream of a maiden with his strong body or for his position as the Lord Paramount of the Stormlands. Why not ask her father to reward Robert for joining the rebellion against Aerys II by marrying her to him? 

Besides, Lyanna Stark would surely  _ love _ to learn that Robert could find a bride of even higher status than herself, and actually be faithful in marriage unlike what she kept insisting to believe about him. 

  
  


Two weeks after the trial, a letter was found on the writing desk in a corner of the royal bedchamber where Maegor and Elinor slept. As per his written order, Rhaegar had been on the last of the ships taking the new members of the Night Watch north. When passing by Dragonstone, Rhaegar had been knocked out with a sleeping drug hidden in his evening meal, tied up in a sack with some heavy stones and then tossed overboard from the ship in the middle of the night, drowning in the deep sea just outside the still ruined nursery of the Targaryen castle where his wife and children were said to have met their horrible end. 

“Better to have Rhaegar be removed from life while everyone thinks that he is on the Wall, so he can not cause trouble further on,” was all Maegor said after finishing reading and set the letter on fire from a candle, so the actual fate of Rhaegar Waters would never be known to the world. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a headcanon that with Rhaenys being born in 280, she is a few months older than Sarella and being about a year older than Quentyn, so there is a family joke between Elia, Oberyn and Doran that they expanded the family with three children in just a year together


	4. Golden sun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new century starts

Year 300 A.C, the city of Norvos in Essos: 

Viserys and Rhaella had greatly enjoyed the trip in the Dothraki Sea, where they had spent the past year as guests of Khal Drogo during their travels.

“Vaes Dothrak is indeed a place to visit, right, mother?” he asked, again checking so the bags with his personal writings were still tied to his saddle so they were not lost. Over the past eighteen years, Rhaella's now sole child had found himself very interested in history, and intended to become a historian thanks to the studies he had under Ihsan, the widower of the ruling Princess Aria Martell and father to Doran, Elia and Oberyn. 

“Yes. It is wonderful to explore the world without being chained to the Iron Throne anymore. Very regrettable that Maegor II died last month, but he was 50 years old when taking the throne from your father and his son Aemon have already done a lot of the work of being a King when Maegor fell ill from that stroke two years ago.” 

Viserys had to agree with his mother. He had learned the truth of why Maegor had taken the Kingship when he was old enough, and did his best to be the dutiful son Rhaegar had never been to his mother. Personally, Viserys enjoyed the freedom of posing as the bastard son of Oberyn, for that allowed him to choose his own path in life. Same with Rhaenys and Aegon, who had joined their uncle and grandmother to Norvos last year when Mellario would visit her own family and returned some months ago. 

“I am glad that Mellario brought a villa for us five to use as a second home here in Essos, so we could not have to hide in Dorne all the time.” 

Once recovered from her horrible past, Rhaella had blossomed into the self-confident, surprisingly adventurous woman she could have been without the chains of being a royal princess, if she had not married her own brother and become a mother at such a young age. She fully supported Viserys in what he did, and only hoped that he soon would find a nice lady to settle down with.

“When we return home to Dorne, I will try and make this into a book. Perhaps this could be the cure for Westeros to see that Essos is not so foreign as they often think.”

  
  


The villa was cared for by servants from Dorne when the two mothers and their children were not there, so Rhaella and Viserys did not have to worry about the place being visited by burglars while they have been gone for almost a whole year. 

“My lady, my lord, welcome back. There are letters from Sunspear waiting in the solar for you.”

“Thank you.”

It turned out to be mostly letters from the Martells with news about Westeros, like Aegon writing that Robert Baratheon had his fifth child half a year ago and Rhaenys telling that Raya Stark, the firstborn daughter of Brandon Stark with Catelyn Tully, had married his oldest son Lyonel. And Shireen Baratheon, the first daughter of Stannis and Lysa, was doing very well in her marriage to Prince Baelor Targayren, the oldest surviving grandson to Aemon I and next-in-line to the crown after his own father Gaemon. 

“Very nice for House Baratheon despite all the trouble Rhaegar caused by running off with Lyanna. They have a Stark daughter married to Robert's son, and Stannis is most likely going to be a grandfather of a future King.”

Rhaella was pleased with the news, and Viserys made sure to add in those news as facts in his notes over recent history. 

~X~X~X~X~X~X

At the same time, in the Stormlands:

For the few visitors who arrived here, it was easy to see why the late Maegor II had chosen this place as punishment for Lyanna Stark. This small isle with a almost insignificant motherhouse had a history of being used as the final home for ladies of high status that turned out to be defiant in a manner that harmed not only their social reputation, but also refused to acknowledge their share of responsibility in something that could not be improved with ordinary penance. Daena Targaryen had ended up here not long after that her uncle had become King Viserys II, because she proved herself unmanageable and the scandal of becoming pregnant with her eventually infamous son despite being locked up in the Maidenvault. The Targayen princess had died not many years after in an illness, long before Aegon VI had claimed Daemon Waters as his own bastard. 

  
  


Lyanna had been locked up in the tallest room of the motherhouse, not exactly a tower but still keeping her away from the septas living there. This was what her life had become, a small room with only a heath, a small privy in one corner and a heavy locked door that had a cross hatch of iron so the septas could see what she was doing. She could see ships in the distance from the window when she was not using the shutters to keep out the weather or light, but never escaping because of the iron bars that stopped her. In short, the very prison she had claimed that a marriage to Robert Baratheon would be. 

“How does it feel, to become known in history as the Northern she-wolf who brought the line of Aerys II to its end?” 

Lyanna looked up at the female voice. In the light of a lamp, a Dornish woman in her early 40s was looking at her through the cross hatch. But there was something about her that seemed strange…

“You... **_you_ ** are alive?! How?! Everyone says that you died at Dragonstone!” the former Stark daughter exclaimed in shock when she realized who it was. Elia Martell, the wife of Rhaegar. She was older than what Lyanna barely recalled of seeing her at Harrendal, but much alive and looking healthy. 

“I had no intention to let Rhaegar shame me for a second time, with the same girl he crowned as Queen of Love and Beauty. You two running off together gave me the perfect setting to make it seem like Rhaegar indeed was mad enough to get rid of me and our children in a legal marriage, all to marry you and let you be the mother of his future offspring instead. And it was high time that poor Rhaella was free from her horrible marriage as well.” 

Lyanna paled in horror when it seemed to dawn on her how it must have happened. 

“You used me! You Dornish are just as false and treacherous as people say…” 

“ **_I did it out of love for my children, ignorant wolf-girl!_ ** ” Elia said in a sharp voice, sounding cold like the winter above the Wall, “If you had bothered to learn from history, you would have known that any male royal bastard would be seen as a new Daemon Blackfyre, and that it was the half-Dornish sons of Myriah Martell that he threatened about the crown.”

The daughter of House Martell had no intention to waste time and breath on Lyanna Stark, merely giving her a final lesson about how foolish she was by falling for the false image of Rhaegar as a heroic prince. 

“My Rhaenys and Aegon are happy with their current life, and I enjoy our life in Essos as well. Widowhood is suiting both me and Rhaella very well, so it is only good to see that you are locked up in a place where you will not be causing any more scandals for your family.” 

Turning around, Elia placed a big purse with coins in the hands of an older septa that had been waiting a bit further away.

“ **_Spread out the rumours that she has gone mad from the isolation inside that room over the years and lack of her desired freedom if she starts blabbing about seeing me here,_ ** ” she requested over the shouts from Lyanna ordering Elia to come back, the coins being a much welcomed charity for the septas who were living a life of poverty and not getting much in their share of donation from the wealthy to the Faith. 

Given that Lyanna had spent nearly eighteen years in here, with next to no visits from her brothers at all, claiming that she had gone mad would not be viewed as anything strange. And with her current age of 33 years, nothing could save her from this remote island becoming her tomb as well when that time came. Perhaps Lyanna was fated to live to a grand old age, forgotten by the outside world. 

~X~X~X~X~X~X

A few weeks later in the Old Palace, Dorne:

Rhaenys was proudly showing off her latest paintings for her family, and Aegon felt proud of his sister. Not only was she showing a good promise to become a painter, his own studies to become one of the healers here in Dorne were not far from being finished. 

“It will be fun to read the book when uncle Viserys is finished, right, madre?” he asked Elia as she looked towards the horisont where the ship carrying Rhaella and Viserys back home to Dorne from Essos would be arriving tomorrow or the day after. 

“Yes, it will be fun. We have visited the Free Cities, so learning about their experiences with the Dothraki should be interesting.” 

Life was good. All five of them had managed to live so far without their false deaths being revealed for anyone outside the new Targaryen dynasty on the Iron Throne, and hopefully the future would continue in the same way. Rhaegar and Aerys were ghosts of the past, never to haunt their escaped family members again. With time Viserys, Rhaenys and Aegon might find love, and start their own families. Forever free from the royal burdens they would have carried otherwise. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Given the scandal of her son being a bastard, I think Daena was sent to the Faith to stop her from damaging the the Crown's reputation more than she had already done with her pregnancy and was not allowed to raise him herself, seeing that Daemon Blackfyre is mentioned to have been raised in the Red Keep before Aegon VI did acknowledging him as his son


End file.
